The detonation of explosives either in the military, mining or similar fields can be a very dangerous exercise, which if not done correctly can lead to catastrophic effects not just to the surrounding area but also to people within close proximity to the detonation area.
When using explosives there are two prime considerations that need to be dealt with, these being (1) placing the blaster a safe distance away from the explosion to prevent injury from flying debris, flames, concussion on a combination of the three, and (2) initiating the explosive at a safe distance (stand-off) between the blaster and the blast. The stand-off distance cannot be readily identified as a specific distance and as a consequence is directly related to many blasting accidents.
The common types of detonation of explosives used to provide a safe stand-off distance are (1) electric blasting using wire and electric blasting caps, (2) radio controlled blasting using communication telemetry and (3) initiation cord or tube.
The use of initiation cord requires sufficient energy to detonate the explosive. The use of initiation cord with an electric blasting cap can be dangerous since the blasting cap contains more explosive than is necessary to start the initiation cord and is prone to interference from radio frequency energy or high electro-magnetic fields which can cause premature detonation of the explosive.
Current known methods of using initiation cord with mechanical starters using a shell shot primer coupled to the initiation tube can also be dangerous. This is because the close proximity of the blaster to the detonating cord can cause injury due to the cord having an external burning rate of approximately 7000 meters per second.
While known explosive initiating devices fulfill their respective objectives and requirements they do not appear to describe an explosive initiating method and/or system that utilises the best features of the electric and mechanical initiators to provide safe and efficient initiating of explosives.
There have been previous attempts to use electro/mechanical initiators using a high current discharge capacitor to drive a linear solenoid to strike a shot shell primer. However, such initiators require high energy to operate and are generally only able to be fired electrically, not manually.